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Here’s Rupert Wyatt, director of the blockbuster movie Rise of the Planet of the Apes in a recent interview: “(The script) had become very different and much more exciting to me. It became less a story of domesticization of a pet and more about an uprising and a Che Guevara story.” Here’s the Associated Press review of “Rise of the Planet of the Apes”: “Raised much like a human child by a researcher, with help from a veterinarian, Caesar becomes a Che Guevara-style revolutionary, leading a rebellion of apes against their human oppressors.” Ground control to Director Wyatt:

Donald Trump’s potential candidacy for the 2012 Republican presidential nomination has forced the issue of whether Barack Obama was born in America into the mainstream, a question the establishment media has been frantically avoiding. Mr. Trump is demanding the president reveal his long-form birth certificate. The real estate mogul believes Mr. Obama is deliberately withholding embarrassing or damaging information. He has ridden the birth controversy to the top of the GOP field.

CENTRAL OHIO - As gasoline prices continue to climb, the oil industry said this week that by 2012, we could be paying not $4 per gallon, but $5. "It scares me," said Sharri Carroll, who was filling up her car in Hilliard Wednesday. "How are you going to afford to fill up your tank every week to get to work?" NBC4 took the concerns Wednesday to John Felmy, a Ph.D. a top official with the American Petroleum Institute. Felmy is one of the country's leading experts on gasoline prices who just happened to be in Columbus Wednesday

Wow... I only bought 30 - 40 oz of Silver as a hedge against inflation or if all hell broke lose. I can not believe it blew past $30 Oz and shows no sign of stopping....or perceived that way. I keep reading about a 16:1 ratio of Gold to Silver on this planet. Does that mean Silver could go for around $100 per ounce when all is said and done? Are more industries using Silver, people investing in it or the dollar dropping like a rock that is causing the rise? I assume all three but I would like to...

(Reuters) - New U.S. claims for unemployment benefits rose more than expected last week while unit labor costs fell in the third quarter, underlining the persistent weakness in the jobs market. Although other data on Thursday showed nonfarm productivity rebounded at a much stronger-than-expected 1.9 percent annual rate in the third quarter, the general tone remained consistent with a sluggish economy. Initial claims for state unemployment benefits increased 20,000 to a seasonally adjusted 457,000, the Labor Department said, reversing the prior week's decline. Analysts polled by Reuters had forecast claims rising to 443,000 from the previously reported 434,000. The government...

The number of children dying of abuse or neglect after involvement by Los Angeles County’s Department of Children and Family Services has steadily increased since 2008, according to confidential documents reviewed by the Los Angeles Times. The data represent the first time the public has gained access to the department’s year-over-year maltreatment fatality trends. According to information circulated recently among senior county officials, the number of children who have died of abuse or neglect by their caregivers rose from 18 in 2008 to 26 in 2009.

As gold hovers just below the $1,300 mark it broke last week, consensus expects the metal keep rising in the coming week. The bull is back: Bloomberg: Sixteen of 23 traders, investors and analysts surveyed by Bloomberg, or 70 percent, said the metal will rise next week. Six forecast lower prices and one was neutral. Gold for December delivery was up 1.3 percent for this week at $1,293.60 an ounce at 11 a.m. yesterday on the Comex in New York. Futures climbed to a record $1,298 on Sept. 22. ... The weekly gold survey that started six years ago has...

(Reuters) - Gold could rally above $1,300 an ounce this year, setting successive all-time highs, as uncertainty about economic recovery and a sovereign debt crisis stoke investment interest, according to a closely watched industry report released Tuesday. Investment demand in gold should benefit from the threat of inflation as central banks cut interest rates to the bone to battle double-dip recession and high unemployment, respected metals consultancy GFMS Ltd said in its Gold Survey 2010 Update. "I think we could easily see gold spike comfortably above $1,300 before the year's out ... further gains in 2011 are far from out...

LONDON, Aug 11 (Reuters) - Rising grain prices from Russia's drought and fires will pressure populations already hit by the financial crisis and could stoke unrest -- particularly in the Middle East, North Africa and parts of Europe. Wheat prices have risen by nearly 70 percent since June after Russia suffered its worst drought in 130 years and are at their highest since 2008, when the last major food price rally sparked protests and riots in a string of emerging nations.

Hospital waiting times have begun to rise again after years of decline following the introduction of European rules on junior doctors’ working hours. Waiting times in the NHS had been dropping since the 1990s but the rules limiting junior doctors to a 48-hour week, which were implemented last August, had reversed the trend. Thousands more patients were now waiting longer than 18 weeks for surgery. (Snip) However, since the EU directive cut junior doctors’ hours from 56 to 48 per week, these gains had been wiped out, the Royal College said.

Petrol and power prices have risen sharply in New Zealand after the government introduced a controversial emissions trading scheme. The government has pressed ahead with plans to slash the nation's carbon output, despite widespread opposition and New Zealand's larger neighbour Australia shelving its own scheme. Motorists were hit by a 3c (1.4p) rise in the price of a litre of petrol overnight, while householders face a 5 per cent increase in gas and electricity prices. It was the first step in a complex scheme, universally referred to as "the ETS", to slash carbon emissions back to 1990 levels. Some disgruntled...

Saturday's special election for Hawaii's 1st Congressional District has garnered a huge amount of attention. The stakes are high: for the candidates, their political parties, Hawaii residents and even the Obama administration, given the national attention this race has drawn.

WASHINGTON — The number of homeowners dropping out of the Obama administration's main mortgage assistance plan is growing, and is now almost equal to the number who have received permanent relief. The Treasury Department's report on Monday was the latest evidence of problems in the administration's $75 billion program. While officials insist the program is helping the housing market turn around, critics say it is merely delaying an inevitable surge in foreclosures. More than 299,000 homeowners had received permanent loan modifications as of last month, Treasury said. That's about 25 percent of the 1.2 million who started the program since...

Young people will need to carry more of the burden of health care under the new health overhaul law. The new law limits an industry practice of charging older customers more.

CHICAGO (AP) - Health insurance premiums for young adults are expected to rise about 17 percent once they're required to buy insurance four years from now. That estimate is from an analysis by Rand Health. Young people will need to carry more of the burden of health care under the new health overhaul law. The new law limits an industry practice of charging older customers more. Even so, the pluses could outweigh the minuses. Some 2 million people under age 26 should qualify for coverage under their parents' health plans. And Medicaid expansion will insure 9 million more young adults.

The hike would pay for more aggressive conservation programs and a solar plan designed to create 16,000 jobs as well as cover the fluctuating price of coal and natural gas. Households that get their power from the Los Angeles Department of Water and Power could see their electric bills go up between 8.8% and 28.4%, depending on where they live and how much energy they use, under a plan unveiled Monday by Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa.

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – The number of U.S. workers filing for jobless benefits unexpectedly rose last week, but another big gain in productivity in the fourth quarter offered hope that companies were closer to adding to payrolls. Initial claims for state unemployment insurance increased 8,000 to 480,000, the Labor Department said on Thursday. Financial markets had expected claims to come in at 460,000. While claims are down sharply from their peak last spring, the improvement has stalled in recent weeks. Despite the setback, analysts are optimistic hiring will pick up soon as firms run out of ways to boost output without...

Islamic terrorism is on the rise both domestically and internationally since Obama became President in 2009, according to a count of high-profile, terrorism incidents in 2009, both in the US and abroad. The number of Islamic terrorism incidents worldwide since Obama took office in 2009, including both domestic and international acts of terrorism, is on pace to surpass more than 1000 for all of 2009, according to a report by the American Security Project which is a bipartisan, Washington-based group. On the domestic front, for 2009 when Obama became President, the number of terror-related incidents hit a peak, the highest...

There has been an endless amount of chatter about the price of gold being too high (it's not) and perhaps representing a bubble. It also seems that fair amounts of ink and windage have been wasted on worries about the gold trade being "too crowded." In my daily column on my own Web site, on Sept. 17, I noted a remark by Dennis Gartman of The Gartman Letter that the gold market was "terribly, egregiously, preposterously, shockingly overpopulated." That day, gold closed at $1,014 an ounce. Here we are, about two months later, and gold is more than 10% higher....

NOVEMBER 15, 2009 Concerns Rise Around Obama Trip JONATHAN WEISMAN SHANGHAI -- President Barack Obama arrived here late Sunday to press China on issues from climate change to economic restructuring, amid rising concerns that his first swing through Asia as president will yield more disappointment than progress on trade, human rights, national security and environmental concerns. A flurry of actions in Singapore this weekend raised more questions than they resolved on a broad sweep of issues confronting both sides of the Pacific. On Sunday, leaders of the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation forum dropped efforts to reach a binding international climate-change agreement...